Dryer appliances generally include a cabinet with a drum mounted therein. In many dryer appliances, a motor rotates the drum during operation of the dryer appliance, e.g., to tumble articles located within a chamber defined by the drum. Alternatively, dryer appliances with fixed drums have been utilized. Typical dryer appliances also generally include a heater assembly that passes heated air through the chamber of the drum in order to dry moisture-laden articles disposed within the chamber. This internal air then passes from the chamber through a vent duct to an exhaust conduit, through which the air is exhausted from the dryer appliance. Typically, a blower (also known as an air handler) is utilized to flow the internal air from the vent duct to the exhaust duct. When operating, the blower may pull air through itself from the vent duct, and this air may then flow from the blower to the exhaust conduit.
One concern with presently known dryer appliances is the power consumption and high temperature production of known heaters utilized with the dryer appliances. For example, some known heaters operate at greater than 5000 Watts, and can consume in excess of 2200 Watt-Hours when drying loads using U.S. Department of Energy uniform test procedures. Additionally, increasingly high temperature production can in some cases present safety concerns.
Accordingly, improved heaters for use with dryer appliances are desired in the art. In particular, heaters which produce required heat for drying purposes while reducing power consumption and maximum temperatures would be advantageous.